Boys’ night out Here’s the actual social note about that Cape Breton Regional Hospital Foundation “reception” Mayor Cecil Clarke co-hosted with Cape Breton Eagles owner Irwin Simon in Toronto on Wednesday. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I feel like there’s something missing from this photo: AccordingRead More

This is a quick follow-up to my October 30 articles about stress and call center jobs, the first of which was basically a review of On the Clock, What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane, by Philadelphia-based journalist Emily Guendelsberger, who took three low-wage jobsRead More

I was listening to Intercepted, a podcast from The Intercept news outlet, on Wednesday and heard an interview with Emily Guendelsberger, a Philadelphia-based journalist who has written a book called  On the Clock, What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane. The interviewer, Jeremy Scahill, explainedRead More

Earlier this year, acting on a tip that ambulances were being called quite frequently to what is now known as the Sydney Call Centre (although for most of the period for which I requested figures, it was the ServiCom call center), I FOIPOPed the Nova Scotia Department of Health toRead More

I was listening to an interview with businessman Andrew Yang, one of the many Democratic presidential candidates in the US, during which he listed the jobs he felt were most vulnerable to automation in the near future (it was part the case he was making for a basic annual income).Read More

Grandstanding Okay, so on Tuesday, as I was burrowing through the documents I’d received from the feds relating to the 2012 sale of the Royal Cape Breton Yacht Club, I thought I might try to follow the CBRM Council meeting about the library at the same time. (You know howRead More

On January 15, NSBI issued the following press release: Nova Scotia Business Inc. (NSBI) has approved a business development incentive in the form of an innovation rebate for Canadian Maritime Engineering Limited. For over 30 years, the company has serviced a range of marine and industrial companies including machining, mechanical,Read More

Jeff Sklarz is the New Haven, Connecticut-based attorney representing the unsecured creditors’ committee in the JNET Communications (parent company of ServiCom) bankruptcy case. I talked to him on Monday about the JNET bankruptcy and I’m combining what he told me with some information I dug up myself to help youRead More

ServiCom, as most readers surely know by now, did not just operate the call center in Sydney. The company also had a call center in Rockford, Illinois (175 Executive Parkway) and two in the nearby town of Machesney Park, Illinois (10100 Forest Hills Road and 9942 N. Alpine Road). OnRead More

The Reverend Dr. David Jefferson Sr., Esquire is the founder, chairman, chief executive officer and president of JNET Communications LLC, which he established in 2003 and which  “includes among its family of companies” Vitel Communications, ServiCom and ServiCom Canada — all of which are now listed as “debtors” in courtRead More